Detention of U.S. Citizens

Abstract

In 1971, Congress passed legislation to repeal the Emergency Detention Act of 1950 and to enact the following language: "No citizen shall be imprisoned or otherwise detained by the United States except pursuant to an Act of Congress." The new language, codified at 18 U.S.C. 4001(a), is called the Non-Detention Act. This statutory provision received attention after the 9/11 terrorist attacks when the Administration designated certain U.S. citizens as "enemy combatants" and claimed the right to detain them indefinitely without charging them, bringing them to trial, or giving them access to counsel. In litigation over Yaser Esam Hamdi and Jose Padilla, both designated enemy combatants, the Administration has argued that the Non-Detention Act restricts only imprisonments and detentions by the Attorney General, not by the President or military authorities. For more detailed analysis, see CRS Report RL31724, "Detention of American Citizens as Enemy Combatants," by Jennifer K. Elsea. This report will be updated as events warrant.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 28, 2005
Accession Number
ADA462372

Entities

People

  • Louis Fisher

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Attorneys
  • Congress
  • Correctional Facilities
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Governments
  • Imprisonment
  • Judiciary
  • Language
  • Law
  • Litigation
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • President (United States)
  • Sabotage
  • Security
  • United States

Readers

  • Criminal Law
  • Government and Public Administration Law.